vanityFair2A little write up –or rather a series of quotes– in the most recent issue of Vanity Fair magazine (April 2014).  The story explores the ins and outs of creating reproduction artwork for films, specifically films about art.  In the case of Todd van Hulzen it draws on his experience as a designer and artist for the film Girl with a Pearl Earring.  For this film from 2003 Todd  organized the creation of approximately 75 different painting from historical sources.  Most of them were reproduced digitally, but several were painted by hand, particularly the paintings on the easels seen in various stages of development. Todd was also a hand double for Colin Firth, an instructor in the techniques of painting and grinding of historical pigments and an art-director creating the set designs of the canal-side house of the artist Vermeer.